All these troubles and tribulations naturally told on Dr.
McLoughlin. He was a man of fortitude, who brooded, almost silently, over
his sorrows, with an occasional outburst when his sufferings were too
intense. He had made expensive improvements on his land claim, including a
flour-mill and a saw-mill, and other buildings. No provisions were ever made
by Congress to pay for these improvements. Even his dwelling house at Oregon
City, which for several years had been the home of himself and his family,
was taken from him, with his other improvements, by section eleven of the
Oregon Donation Land Law. It is true he remained in possession of these
improvements, including his home, but by sufferance only. Because the
Territory of Oregon did not sell the land he was not actually ousted. There
was no way to acquire land in Oregon City, taken from Dr. McLoughlin by said
section eleven, except by a law passed by the Oregon Legislature. And the
legislature did nothing.

He could not move nor sell his improvements. They
belonged to the land on which they were erected. Even if he could have sold
them they would have brought but little as they would have to be moved. His
mills were erected to be run by water power and they were conveniently
situated on the bank of the river near the falls, for the economical
handling of wheat and logs and the shipping of products of these mills. They
could not, at that time, be successful financially if they were moved and
operated by steam. He hoped that Congress or the Legislature
would restore his land claim to him. But he hoped and waited in vain. The
lion was entangled in a net. He struggled but he could not escape. And so
Dr. McLoughlin became straitened financially. Had Dr. McLoughlin been
allowed to have his land, he could then have built up a large town at Oregon
City. As it was, investors went to places where titles to land could be
obtained and there built up enterprises. With the moneys from the sale of
land Dr. McLoughlin could have paid the Hudson's Bay Company all the moneys
due by settlers, who had failed or refused to pay. The payment of this heavy
indebtedness Dr. McLoughlin had assumed. It was a matter of honor with him.
He owed nothing else to the Hudson's Bay Company. The settlers who would not
pay their indebtedness caused Dr. McLoughlin to feel keenly their
ingratitude. If they had paid him, he would have paid the Company in full.

And there, too, was the question of providing after his
death for his loving and faithful wife, to whom he was devoted, and his
children. He had always been generous to his family. He had provided for his
mother until her death at the age of eighty-three years. He had educated
four nieces. He had helped other of his relatives. Is it to be wondered at
that he sometimes felt bitter?

The McLoughlin Document was undoubtedly written at this
period. It is a brief of his defense. He probably wrote it so that his
descendants would understand. At the end of this Document, Dr. McLoughlin
said: "By British demagogues I have

been represented as a traitor.
For what? Because I acted as a Christian; saved American citizens, men,
women and children from the Indian tomahawk and enabled them to make farms
to support their families. American demagogues have been base enough to
assert that I had caused American citizens to be massacred by hundreds by
the savages. I, who saved all I could. I have been represented by the
Delegate from Oregon, the late S. R. Thurston, as doing all I could to
prevent the settling [of Oregon], while it was well known to every American
settler who is acquainted with the history of the Territory if this is not a
downright falsehood, and most certainly will say, that he most firmly
believes that I did all I could to promote its settlement, and that I could
not have done more for the settlers if they had been my brothers and
sisters, and, after being the first person to take a claim in the country
and assisting the immigrants as I have, my claim is reserved, after having
expended all the means I had to improve it, while every other settler in the
country gets his. But as I felt convinced that any disturbance between us
here might lead to a war between Great Britain and the States, I felt it my
bounden duty as a Christian, to act as I did, and which I think averted the
evil, and which was so displeasing to some English demagogues that they
represented me to the British government as a person so partial to American
interests as selling the Hudson's Bay Company goods, in my charge, cheaper
to American than I did to British subjects. . . . Yet, after
acting as I have, spending my means and doing my utmost to settle the
country, my claim is reserved, while every other settler in the country gets
his; and how much this has injured me, is daily injuring me, it is needless
to say, and certainly it is a treatment I do not deserve and which I did not
expect. To be brief, I founded this settlement and prevented a war between
the United States and Great Britain, and for doing this peaceably and
quietly, I was treated by the British in such a manner that from self
respect I resigned my situation in the Hudson's Bay Company's service, by
which I sacrificed $12,000 per annum, and the 'Oregon Land Bill' shows the
treatment I received from the Americans."

And so, worried and troubled without surcease, Dr.
McLoughlin maintained his grand, but kindly, attitude to the last. But these
matters affected his health. For several years before his death he was an
invalid, but his pride assisted him to persevere and to transact such
business as he could, although his heart was breaking. His flesh became
greatly reduced, his eyes deeply sunken. He grew so emaciated that his great
frame stood out, making him look gaunt and grim. For a few weeks, only,
before his death he was confined to his bed.

Thus encompassed and overcome, and crucified by robbery,
mendacity, and ingratitude, Dr. John McLoughlin died at Oregon City,
September 3, 1857, a broken-hearted man. He was buried in the churchyard of
the Roman Catholic Church in Oregon City, where his body now lies. The stone
which marks his grave bears the simple inscription:

"Dr. John McLoughlin
DIED
Sept. 3, 1857.
Aged
73 Years.
The pioneer and Friend of Oregon.
Also the founder of this City."

Dr. John McLoughlin is not the only great character in
history, whose memory shall live for all time, but whose death was under sad
circumstances and whose heart, at the time of his death, was then filled
with thoughts of the wrong-doings and the ingratitude of others.

The frontispiece to this address is made from a
photograph of a daguerreotype of Dr. McLoughlin taken in 1856, when his
sorrows and tribulations were beginning to tell on him. This daguerreotype
belongs to Mrs. Josiah Myrick, of Portland, Oregon, who is a granddaughter
of Dr. McLoughlin. She kindly loaned this daguerreotype to have the
photograph made of it.

Governor L. F. Grover was elected Governor of Oregon for
two consecutive terms. He resigned during his last term to be an United
States Senator, to which latter office he was elected. He is now living in
Portland, at an advanced age. On the fourteenth of September, 1905, he gave
me a written statement of an incident which occurred in the last sickness of
Dr. McLoughlin. In this statement Governor Grover said that he was riding on
horseback through Oregon City on his way from Salem to Portland, and passed
down the street directly in front of Dr. McLoughlin's home, a few days
before his death. As Governor Grover was giving directions for the care of
his horse, a messenger came to him from Dr. McLoughlin requesting Governor
Grover to call at Dr. McLoughlin's house. Governor Grover says: "I found him
extremely ill. . . . He said that he was dying by inches. He said: 'I shall
live but a little while longer and this is the reason I sent for you. I am
an old man and just dying, and you are a young man and will live many years
in this country, and will have something to do with affairs here. As for me,
I might better have been shot'-and he brought it out harshly -'I might
better have been shot forty years ago.' After a silence, for I did not say
anything, he concluded: 'than to have lived here and tried to build up a
family and an estate in this government. I became a citizen of the United
States in good faith. I planted all I had here and the government has
confiscated my property. Now what I want to ask of you is that you will give
your influence after I am dead to have this property go to my children. I
have earned it as other settlers have earned theirs, and it ought to be mine
and my heirs. I told him I would favor his request, and did."

This comment system requires
you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an
account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or
Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these
companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All
comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator
has approved your comment.